


Entropy

by Skullszeyes



Series: Strain [2]
Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Blood, Blood and Violence, Death, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Gun Violence, Illusions, M/M, Male Friendship, Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Out of Character, POV Alternating, POV Third Person Limited, Pain, Psychic Abilities, Psychological Torture, Romance, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Swearing, Tags Are Hard, Teleportation, Threats of Violence, Video Game Mechanics, Violence, Virus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2020-06-09 16:02:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19479277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes
Summary: Vanoss awakens in an unknown simulated game with unknown rules. He must find his friends who had been trapped inside with him, while his remaining friends are figuring out what is actually happening on the outside, but soon they'll also be pulled into this world along with the others. Maybe then, they can figure out the pieces they had missed in their last encounter within these strained worlds.*Sequel to Frayed.**Haitus*





	1. VANOSS

**Author's Note:**

> Hey. I decided to write even if I have more work to finish and to deal with. I didn't outline this, but I guess simply writing helps figuring things out as well. :) I don't normally write chapters with two different pov's in it, but I might do that with a page break. :D If you don't mind! I was also inspired to write this story quickly the moment I watched BasicallyIDoWrk's videos on trolling Nogla with Terroriser and Vanoss (they were stealing his diamonds.) 
> 
> I hope you enjoy. 
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.

This place wasn’t right, even how much he looked at it. He knew there was something oddly out of shape as he opened his eyes and pushed himself up. One of the most notable things was that he wasn’t in his bed, nor was he wearing the clothes he was previously sleeping in. 

Vanoss frowned at the red sweater and black pants he wore in GTA5. Except when he looked around, this place wasn’t GTA5, and he knew he didn’t sleep in the game. He hadn’t touched the VR since the incident that happened a few months ago. He was careful about playing with his friends on certain games, and he could tell they were also trying their best to be careful. 

He placed his feet on the floor and stood up. He was a little wobbly, but grasped a bit of control of the way the gravity in the room felt. It was light, not as heavy as he thought, and it wasn’t like he was a feather, he could still walk as normally as he left the room. 

This place wasn’t his house, nor was it his apartment in GTA5. It was a simple white room with black furniture and a carpet in the living room. It was clean and polished, smooth to the touch, and somehow it made him feel glad that everything was symmetrical and not out of place. 

Except that was also one of the wrong things about this place. Even if it wasn’t his house, it was aesthetically pleasing, and it made his skin crawl as he ventured around, trying to figure out where he was until he decided to leave. When he found the front door. He grasped for the doorknob and turned it, trying to force it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

“What the fuck,” he said under his breath as he banged his fist against the smooth metal surface, “let me out!”

And then he stumbled back when a large sound reverberated and he gasped as a large sign appeared before him. It said ERROR. Vanoss blinked before glaring at the sign. 

“What the fuck do you mean, ERROR?” Vanoss’s hand moved through the holographic sign in front of him, and he started to bang his hands on the door again. Yelling to be let out. It took about ten minutes for him to stop, and notice another interesting and yet horrifying revelation as he walked back toward the living room, plopping down on the soft black leather couch, examining his hand. 

“It hurts,” he whispered, his hand was red from hitting the door. He didn’t think it would hurt, not like it had before. And he knew that it was the same game, but in another version of GTA5. Whatever this place was, he had to get out somehow, and maybe even his friends could be inside. He didn’t want to think that was a possibility, he just didn’t want to be alone. 

“If this is a game,” Vanoss reached up and swiped the air in front of him, and a screen appeared that mildly surprised him and at the same time, relieved his suspicions. “Holy fuck...I’m inside another game…but how?” He was careful, he made sure he was that it wasn’t going to happen again to him and his friends. 

The hologram in front of him was easily accessible to his touch. His name sat on the top, and he couldn’t help and see the white veins going through the hologram, moving in and out as he looked toward the status of his health meter, inventory, objective list, and abilities. These weren’t the type of things he was expecting to see, and from the layout, it was from a game he never seen before. 

“Where the fuck am I?” he asked, growing aggravated. 

He didn’t have much health. Three green bars sat on the side, while his inventory was empty of items, and there were no abilities he could access, but it did make him curious of what kind of abilities he could eventually have once he figures out the game mechanics. 

Apparently he could switch the tabs over to a map that displayed where he was. A speck in a large world that reminded him a bit of Minecraft, but not to the extent of it. 

He was in a place called Neighborhood, a section of the map while the others were blurred out for further exploration. There was also something else that was distinct and made him more curious as he walked toward the wide window that once more reminded him of his apartment in GTA5, and Vanoss looked out, pushing the map to the side as he noticed the section he was in was indeed covered in rows and rows of suburban houses. While the other sections were blocked off by large metal walls. 

“Someone else is with me,” Vanoss said, turning back toward the map where he can see four other icons that were separate from each other in the various places the map was showing him in its currently blurred state. 

He checked his objectives and found something of interest. There was a list to the side that was meant as a tutorial. A few were marked off from what he had done already. 

He tried opening the door and was rejected. He explored the house, or other words walked into the living room and sat down, and opened his inventory and checked out everything that was inside of it. 

“Wouldn’t that mean?” Vanoss wondered as he headed back to the front door. He glanced at the objective list and found that three of the tasks were finished, and there was one left. He reached for the doorknob, and to his mild triumph, he was able to open the door without trouble. “Holy shit... “ he said, stepping out of the apartment and into a stale hallway with the same white walls that went all the way down, it almost looked endless. 

“Where the fuck am I?” he asked again, unsure of which way he was meant to go. He checked the door he came through and he was allowed to return inside, but he left the door to fall shut as he walked down the long hallway. 

He wanted to know how he got into the game, and if any of his friends were with him. He was a little afraid of the implications that he might be alone. It left him shuddering of the last time he had experienced something this real. The integration of it pushed his mind from his body, and the game created what it wanted within. Someone had brought him back inside, knowing what they were doing to him and the world around him. 

“The hacker,” he said, and knew it was them that had done this again. They wanted to torment him, and there was a sliver of hope that this was nothing but a dream. Vanoss skimmed his hand on the walls, watching the silver lines move through the walls and vanish. Like insects, he was a little annoyed by them, but knew it was simply the games construct of being within it. 

As he continued his way along the infinite stale white hallway. He came to a slow pace when he noticed something ahead. There was someone far in the distance of the hallway, and their form wavered from how far they were, but it seemed to disappear and then reappear, growing closer as it moved towards him. 

And then Vanoss came to a halt in the hallway, wishing for his usual weapons when he was inside a game. His fingers stilled and his frown deepened at the sight of the thing that was now close enough for him to see what it was. 

“You…” Vanoss said in disbelief. It was the game all over again. The pain of being shot, the burn as it pushed through his body, the shaking and screaming, and then he simply grew used to death even how much he killed his friends and they killed him. 

The thing in front of him was the same virus he had seen within the GTA5 simulation. A boy, as tall as him, slim in body shape as he wore a black sweater with a silver zipper, and jeans that were slightly ripped at the knees, and black sneakers. The distinction of this virus was the mask it wore. A LED covering its nonexistent face with a creepy smile and x’s as eyes. 

“WelcomeHome,” it said, tilting its head to the side, and wringing its hands in front of it. It started to chuckle, its voice shifting to various tones of his friend’s laughter before slowing down to Vanoss’s, and completely stopping. 

“Where am I?” he asked it, not amused as he should be, but still riding the anxiety that coursed through his body.

“Home,” it said. 

Vanoss scowled at its reply. “This isn’t my home. Where the fuck am I?” he stepped closer to the virus, and the virus had stepped closer to him. It was off putting, and he had gone still while the virus seemed to mimic his movements. “You know where I am.” 

“Ask a different question,” the virus said. 

What? Why?

To his dismay, his palms were getting sweaty, and he recalled the map he was looking at earlier. “There are others in this game, right? Where are they?”

The virus chuckled, its voice distorted, “Do you want to be moved toward a companion?”

It could do that?

“How?” Vanoss asked, and he sucked in a breath when the virus pulled out a gun that was probably tucked at the back of him, under his sweater and pants. “W-Wait...don’t kill me.” He couldn’t get what happened to him in the GTA5 simulation out of his head. He had gone through it numerous of times, and it still managed to raise nightmares to the surface. 

Death had touched him, brought on a grey expanse of cold air on his overheated skin. A terrible shock that wasn’t in anyway fulfilling. 

The virus went still before it started to move its gaze along Vanoss’s body. “Scan complete, Vanoss is initiated,” it said, confusing Vanoss who was too afraid to move as the gun was still pointed directly at his chest, “modified transport to section three: Hedge Maze is complete.”

“Hedge Maze?” he asked.

“Synchronization Complete to Companion two,” and the virus moved in a mechanical manner as the gun was lowered and it pulled the trigger. Vanoss fell hard when the bullet pushed through his leg, forcing him to his knees that didn’t help as he gasped and screamed. He looked down as blood pooled out onto the grey carpet. He knew the virus was getting closer to him, its voice was too difficult to understand as Vanoss tried to stop himself from going into shock. 

“In the game of Entropy, you have to be careful of the way you play, your life is on the line, and death is close behind. Do watch where you step, and who you trust, and what you do when you hit a wall. Not everyone will save you, and not everyone will be who they say they are. Remember, player one known as Vanoss, in this game, disorder is the main function.” The virus knelt down in front of him and said, "Tutorial complete.” It set the gun against Vanoss’s forehead and pulled the trigger.

The action of dying was familiar. The falling into nothing, and knowing he had no body, no mind, no heart, no soul to return too. Except, as he drifted through the haze, he was forced abruptly back into his body. His eyes opened, and his heart raced as Vanoss pushed himself up, breathing heavily as his fingers touched his forehead where the virus had shot him. 

He was alive and it didn’t feel good. 

The stale air of the infinite hallway was gone and he could smell the rough burn of the asphalt, and the cold wind that brushed against his face and strands of hair. He glanced around as he once more pushed himself up onto his shaky limbs. The first thing he did was pull up his map, and his brows lifted at where he was now.

The map revealed the area that was now showing his icon: The Hedge Maze. He had gone toward another section of the map like what the virus had indicated. Companion two, who was that, and did it mean one of his friends was with him within the game? Or was it going to be an NPC.

He let his map fall away and doubted there was any NPC’s. The Hedge Maze was truly what it was. All he could see were hedges, lush and green with thorns weaving through the branches and leaves. It was taller than him, but the area was wide enough for him not to accidentally walk into. 

“Great, one mystery only to go to another,” he said to himself as he ventured away from the spot he had woken up on and meandered to the end and glanced down the long corridor. At least he wasn’t in the hallway, but this was something else entirely. It was...strange and quiet and lonely. 

“What the fuck?” he frowned, “where is my Companion Two?” And right on cue, a scream filled the cold air and Vanoss who could still feel the phantom pain in his leg, limped to the end of the corridor, avoiding touching the thorns, until he spotted a bright light, several had shown above the hedges that came from something he couldn’t see. 

And then someone skidded around the corridor, screaming, before they noticed him standing and staring. 

“What the fuck are you doing, you fucking stupid idiot!” 

Vanoss blinked, and recognized who it was. “Terroriser?” 

“Run, you asshole, don’t stare at me!” Terroriser reached him, and instead of slowing down, he yanked Vanoss behind him and they were running down the corridor. Terroriser glanced back at him, “What the fuck is wrong with your leg?” 

“Virus shot me and then killed me!” Vanoss said, trying to keep up.

“Yeah, well, if this thing catches us, it’ll burn us to ash, and do you really want to burn?”

He never thought about it, but no, he didn’t.

Terroriser yanked him into an alcove where they were squished against one another. Vanoss shivering as the light grew closer to them, and simply moved by. Terroriser was panting against him, clutching his sweater. He could feel him trembling, and it seemed the fear forced him not to move out of the alcove, but it was enough time for Vanoss to get his breath back. 

“Holy fuck…” he whispered, “why the fuck are we here?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be more pov's then just Vanoss and Delirious's, and it'll add onto sub plots of the story. :D And I do apologize for how rushed this chapter is, I didn't outline, I simply decided to write and it's how it turned out. I think it's fine! Gave me a base to figure out the rest of the chapters.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.


	2. DELIRIOUS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delirious tries to figure out what is going on with his friends, but soon he hears knocking on his own front door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The summary is kind of funny, because...yeah, same, I wouldn't answer it. LOL. 
> 
> Anyway's, I keep saying I outlined this, and everything is figured out. But, I think I was thinking of my other fics that were established, and this one has a bunch of notes and such, but I didn't outline it yet. I might just write vague outlines instead of in depth ones because I hate getting burnt out when I do that. I also improvise a lot. Haha! :D 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! :D
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciative.

Jonathan bit into his sandwich as he makes his way toward the room with his computer and gaming equipment. Fresh from a shower, Jonathan’s dark hair is still wet, a trail leading from the back of neck, and under his loose shirt. He sets the sandwich down on the gaming desk, and turns on his computers. 

Picking up his phone, he scrolls through it until he finds something odd. There’s comments on twitter asking about Vanoss’s strange disappearance. He wrinkles his nose when the bad comments appear, and sets down his phone. He moves his mouse over to Discord and clicks it. 

It has been a few weeks since and Evan played a game, but work was work, and they did what they had too. At least he hoped that they did. He wanted to ask if anyone else has seen Evan, but he holds back. 

He checks out the videos that are uploaded, and eats the rest of his sandwich and sits back to read over a few comments going on in Discord. Some of his friends have been saying some odd things to one another. 

There’s a slight panic amongst a few, and he scrolls up where it all began until reads over Moo’s, and Scotty’s. 

Moo goes on about not seeing Terroriser anywhere, while Fourzer0seven says he hasn’t heard from Basically in two days. His wife has also been worried about him, but some of them think they went out of the city. They left a note.

Panda enters the chat next and he asks to enter the call. This is where Delirious also adds himself in, greeting the others, and not missing the panic in each of their voices.

“What the fuck is going on?” Scotty asked, his voice pitched.

“I don’t know,” Panda sounds resigned, but still worried and contemplative, “he hung up before I could tell him to call the cops.”

Delirious furrowed his brows, leaning forward in his chair. “Who are you talking about?” 

“SMii7y,” Panda answered.

Scotty lets out a laugh, but there’s nothing humorous about it. “They were almost kidnapped about ten minutes ago. Right, Anthony, that was ten fucking minutes ago?” 

“Yeah,” said Panda. “Fuck. It was ten minutes ago, and he hung up—”

“Why did he do that?” Moo asked, his voice coming out thick with nerves.

“Maybe they were still being followed.”

“How do they know they were almost kidnapped?” Delirious asked, bringing up a private chat between him and Vanoss that they created awhile ago. He asked Vanoss to message him once he gets back on. 

“Because he was almost forced inside a car,” Panda told him, and there was the hint of anger and impatience in his voice, a thrum of anxiety. “A gun pointed at SMii7y.”

Delirious’s fingers stilled over the keyboard. Did he just hear him right? He looked up at the screen, at the way Scotty was swearing quietly under his voice, and Moo not saying a single word on the other end. 

“Holy shit,” Delirious whispered. 

Panda chuckled dryly. “Yeah, holy fuck. First Marcel and Evan and—”

“Hey,” Scotty cut in, “we don’t know that, so don’t bring up fucking assumptions!”

Moo sounded hesitant as he said, “But, it could be—” 

“No, it’s not,” Scotty almost yelled his frustration, “don’t believe it until we know what’s going on.”

Believe what? That they’re friends were kidnapped just like how SMii7y was just now. He didn’t even think of that, but who would kidnap them? They were gamers on youtube, why single them out, why bother to kidnap them in the first place. And why was it so quiet?

“How did he get away?” Delirious asked.

Panda sighed, “He ran, took a risk, called their bluff.”

“He could’ve gotten killed,” Moo said.

“Yeah, and look what he found out,” Scotty said, “they want him alive, they aren’t going to do anything to him, and he took that risk to find that out.”

“Still,” Moo whispered, he was barely audible for them to hear his next words, “it was risky, he could’ve died.” 

To their surprise, SMii7y was in their Discord, which seemed to startle everyone else. He was writing something out on the chat. 

**SMii7y:** Kryoz is picking me up. 

“Holy fuck,” Panda muttered. 

Why did it feel so jagged to read those words? To know what they meant, a stilted confession born between the keyboard taps of their fingertips. A surreal visual experience that made Delirious feel hollow as he sat inside a dark room, in front of a screen while his friends breathe frustration and surprise, horror and contemplation, gasping exhaustion at gunpoint. 

Panda asked SMii7y if he was alright, and SMii7y responded with what Panda had told them.

**SMii7y:** They rolled up on me in a black van and had a gun at my chest, they threatened to shoot me if I didn’t get in. I ran instead…When I got far away, I called Kryoz. He said he’s on his way. 

Delirious grabbed his phone and texted Luke right away. He needed to make sure he was safe. He was sure that he was, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how this was actually happening. Once he finished, he set the phone down while Panda, Scotty, and Moo asked SMii7y questions. 

**Moo:** Did you call the police?

**SMii7y:** They told me not too. Said it wouldn’t work. 

**Fourzer0seven:** Wtf is that supposed to mean?

**SMii7y:** Idk.

What kind of warning was that? Calling the police won’t work for him? 

Delirious looked to his phone and frowned at the lack of text message from CaRtOonz. He usually texts back right away. 

SMii7y tells them that he’ll talk to them when gets home, and after he phones the police. 

There’s a deafening silence in the call with the others, besides some fumbling, and whispering, and exhausting sighs. 

Delirious is more concerned with Luke at the moment, and he even checks the message he sent Vanoss. He didn’t get it either. 

He chews on his bottom lip. What was going on? Maybe they were busy, maybe it was nothing, but he couldn’t stop the paranoid ache in his racing heart. He knew he shouldn’t over think it, but his stomach constricts, and he texts Luke again and again, and then to his surprise Moo is telling them something regarding Vanoss.

“He won’t wake up,” Moo says, worried tone and everything. 

“What the fuck do you mean he won’t wake up?” Scott asked. 

“They took him to the hospital, and someone had already warned them about taking off the VR set around his head,” Moo said, clicking something on his end, and Delirious finds a photo of Vanoss staring at him, he’s lying in a hospital bed, with a headset over his head, he seems like he’s sleeping. 

“He’s still alive?” Panda asked.

“Of course he’s still alive,” Moo says. “They just can’t take off the headset. Whoever did this to him made sure they couldn’t remove it.”

“It’s fucking easy—” Fourzer0seven said. 

“No,” Moo said, losing his patience, “it’s not. They already did tests on him, and I barely know what’s happening, they’re keeping most of the information secret right now.”

Delirious is slowly aware of the way his own hands are shaking on the phone he’s holding until it rings. He sucks in a breath, mutes himself on Discord and takes off his headphones. He answers the phone, quite aware of who is on the other line.

“Where are you?” he asked, trying to calm his breath. One less problem than the one he was trying his hardest not to think about. 

“Holy shit,” Luke says into the phone, breathing hard and sounding more serious than Delirious has ever heard from him, “I was almost grabbed about ten minutes ago.”

He sits up right, unsure if he heard Luke say that. Unsure if he even wants to believe it. 

“No, are you serious?” 

“Yeah, I’m fucking serious,” Luke says into the phone, “why the fuck don’t you think I’m serious, I was almost kidnapped, for fuck sakes.”

Kidnapped. 

That word again.

Always pressing against the surreal that Delirious doesn't want to believe, he doesn’t want to stare at it, he’s afraid of the capability of what it is and what can come from it. 

“I’m on my way over,” Luke says, bringing Delirious out of his thoughts. 

He’s nodding, but he’s trying his hardest to understand the words, to understand what is happening, the contemplation of them and their situation that is mixing and pushing and pulling together in different ways, but it’s all the same.

“Call me when you get close.” And Luke agrees, they hang up, and Delirious has a second to collect himself before unmuting himself from the server and telling them what just happened.

“You’re lying,” Fourzer0seven says.

“Why the fuck would I be lying?” Delirious asked him. He didn’t think his nerves would fray, along with the thoughts of Luke and Vanoss, of SMii7y, all of them in different places, and being attacked anyways. 

“It’s a coincidence,” Panda says.

“No, it’s not,” Moo said, “it’s not, the others went missing, Vanoss is in some kind of coma, and SMii7y was almost kidnapped, and now Luke, this isn’t some kind of fucking coincidence.”

Delirious frowned when he hears something, not from the server, and not from the others as they discuss their thoughts. 

“The others could be in a coma too,” Fourzer0seven says. 

Delirious slowly turned toward the door to the room. It was closed to keep the sound in, but he could hear something, and he takes off his head phones and gets to his feet. 

What is that sound? 

Luke hadn’t phoned me, he hadn’t texted him, so who was knocking on his front door. 

His phone vibrates in his sweaty hand, and he answers it as he stares down his hall as the banging continues in a mantra. 

“You’re not at the front door, are you” 

Luke is panting, and it comes out trembling as Delirious hears him skidding on the ground before coming to a stop. “Go out the back, do it now, before they find a way in.”

_ Before they find a way in.  _

“Leave your phone.”

Delirious hangs up, grabs his sweater, and he’s rushing down the hallway as the banging comes to a stop, he finds his shoes, but he doesn’t put them on. Not now, as he unlocks the door and races outside. The fresh summer air hits him in the face, a warmth settles over his body, and down through his loose shirt while his feet find the soft grass of his backyard, and then the pavement around his empty pool.

Panic and fear wraps around him like a vice, squeezing the breath from his lungs as the first popping sounds sends a terrible jolt in his heart. It’s not a place for sounds like that, a world colliding as he doesn’t look back. 

Delirious sprints down the alley, going left, gripping his shoes as his sweater flares behind him. He’s running for his life, and another sound clears his thought, and all he could think is utter instinct building throughout his fingertips, and along the tips of his hair. 

“Holy fuck,” he mutters, gasping in breathes to ease the pain in his chest, the battering of his heart, and the thudding of his mind telling him to run and not look back. 

He heads down another alley and spots Luke jogging towards him. A light shines upon blonde hair and tan sweat stained skin. 

Luke waves, and there’s a smile building on his face, but soon it falters.

“Run,” Delirious yells, he grabs a hold of Luke’s arm and tugs him back down the alley, and he’s unsure of they’re being chased, but it’s not something he wants to think about. He was shot at, they chased him from his house, and his best friend almost got kidnapped. 

“We can circle back,” Luke tells him when they slow down, Delirious leans against a fence under the shade of a crab apple tree. It’s difficult catching his breath as the air burns his throat, and the burst of energy leaves an exhausting tremble all over him. 

“What the fuck is going on?” Delirious asked, meeting Luke’s eyes and finally noticing his own panic swelled with his own kind of fear. 

Luke shakes his head. “I don’t know, but I think we should make sure they aren’t coming after us.”

Delirious nods and walks with his fear alongside his friend as they head down another alley that leads back to his house. It’s about twenty minutes later when they’re sure no one is inside, and no one is watching the house. 

His mouth is dry from running, from the heat, from the questions he’s too afraid to ask. Luke says nothing in the time that they return, but he does in some way mention the same thing SMii7y had told them. 

They wanted Luke alive, and that meant they didn’t shoot him. 

Delirious finds his back door is closed and he’s a little wary of opening the door to see what’s inside. Luke opens it for him and walks in. Delirious closes it when Luke tells him no one’s ambushing them, and at the same time, he locks the door.

“Your shit is gone,” Luke tells him, standing in the doorway of his workroom.

Delirious frowns at his lack of monitors, and other equipment that was sitting there when he booked it out the back door. His phone was also gone. 

“You got to be fucking kidding me,” Delirious grits his teeth, and shaking his head as he heads for the kitchen and sits down. They wanted nothing more but his equipment, and he was a little afraid that they’ll get into contact with his friends, and tell them bullshit.

“We need a laptop,” Luke tells him, taking out his wallet.

Delirious nods, wiping the sweat from his forehead before noticing something on the front of the fridge door. “What is that?” he asked, pointing at it. 

Luke turns and takes it off. It was a post-it note. 

“Mother fuckers,” Luke passes it to Delirious and walks down the hallway. 

_ There is no point in calling the police. _

The same thing that was said to SMii7y, it was the exact same fucking message. 

“Jonny!” 

“What?” Delirious asked, crumpling up the paper as Luke walked back into the room. He had papers in his hands that was clipped together. He dropped it on the table.

“Those fuckers have been watching us.” Luke points at the first picture of Delirious entering and exiting his house, there are several of Luke as well.

“A few weeks…” Delirious says, looking to the dates and time stamps. “They’ve been watching us for weeks.”

There was another note, this was a little bit more elaborate as the words were written on each of the photo’s. 

“For fuck sakes,” Luke said, shaking his head as they arranged the photos to the message they could understand. 

Delirious sniffles as he reads the message, “Going to the authorities will not be good for your missing friends.” He stared at the last word written in all capital letters. The same one they had seen before in a game that caused them to die over and over again, that brought them nightmares burrowing into their dreams, and it was a mockery of what happened, and what is going on now. 

WELCOMEHOME


	3. TERRORISER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brian wakes up in a strange place.

It hadn’t been the first time when he woke up tired, but it was the first time he woke up lost. 

He somewhat recognized the place, but it escaped him, his mind was too groggy to remember anything. One moment he was home, the next moment, he was under a bridge. He should’ve known something was wrong, but there was also a need to do something, except it was escaping his mind at the moment. 

_Unstable Synchronization…_

“What?” Brian muttered, getting up from where he was lying down on. He was shaky, the world tilted from one side to the other, and he swore under his breath before righting himself, and looking around. This was a bridge. He was underneath it, but why? 

“Where am I?” He didn’t recognize anything, and there was no one else around. Was he dreaming the voice, or was it something else?

_Scanning initiated…_

_Registered: Companion Two._

_The Terroriser._

_Modified Synchronization._

“What?” Brian frowned, looking around but he still didn’t see anything. Just a fading blue sky, and the warm wind caressing his skin. He didn’t have his sweater, and he wore his usual black pants and sneakers. He didn’t even know how he got here, or whatever this thing was talking about.

_Modified Synchronization Unqualified…_

_Registered: Companion Two._

_The Terroriser._

_No External Connection Applied..._

_Password..._

Brian clenched his teeth, touching his pant pockets. He didn’t have his phone, or anything, he had no idea what or who is talking to him. 

“Password...you want me to tell you a password…I don’t know what the fuck is going—”

“WelcomeHome.”

Brian blinked, the words were framed strangely, distorted and almost cut off. He twisted around and looked up upon the bridge and found the familiar figure standing on the ledge. It had its hands tucked in its pockets.

“Malfunction synchronization to Companion One, Vanoss.”

Wait. What? “Evan is here?”

The virus leaned forward, head tilted to the side, and said in a drawl, “Scanning…”

“Stop scanning me!”

“Scanning Complete of Companion Two.” The virus righted itself. “Password.”

“I don’t know any fucking password!” Brian still couldn’t believe the virus was here, right in front of him, talking as if everything that happened hadn’t happened at all. He was pissed that it controlled him before, forcing him to kill his friends, and then he died multiple times. 

“The first thing that pops in your head,” the virus said, rocking back and forth on its feet, its form seemed somehow menacing, even when it spoke in an almost sing-song way. 

The first word?

Brian closed his eyes and shouted, “Pulse!”

The virus stopped, its body rigid. “Password Synchronization Complete.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Brian wondered, already feeling exhausted, and to his shock, the virus stepped off the ledge of the bridge and it fell as Brian stumbled back while the virus pulled out a gun once it slowly landed on the concrete. “What the fuck? No, not again!”

It went still, gripping the gun. “Internal Systems Are Unstable.”

Brian shuddered, heart racing, thoughts pounding inside his head with questions he didn’t know how to ask. What was it talking about? 

“I’m not the one you should be afraid of,” the virus said.

Brian chuckled nervously, unable to look away from the gun. “You’re the one holding a weapon to my face.”

“Companion One needs you, The Terroriser,” the virus spoke quietly, a bit uncertain. “Undetectable, if you can find _it_ , if you can shield him from _it_ , if you’ll able to right the sequence on the inside, and the outside.”

Brian had no idea what the virus was talking about, and then it fully seemed to look at him. “Modified Transport to Section Three: Hedge Maze Complete.” And then the virus shot Brian in the head, collapsing his consciousness, numb and cold at the same time, he could barely feel his fingertips, or the way his heart raced. 

And when he awoke again, still unsure of his surroundings, the memory of the bullet was faint, but the shock itself left Brian scrambling to his feet, fingers gliding against the wet cement, and almost running into the hedge with its thick thorns protruding outwards. He sucked in a breath and found he was surrounded by an endless night, and soon enough, he realized he was inside a game, maybe it came to him faintly, maybe he should’ve known better than to hope it was nothing more than a dream. 

If only he was better.

The rain didn’t come down in a downpour, so there was that. Terroriser got to his feet and glanced around the area. A message appeared before him a soft blue color, bright enough in the dark pathway he was standing in. Still, it frightened him, yet the message followed him until he read it out loud.

**Section Three: The Hedge** **Maze**

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asked once the message was gone. There were more questions piling up and all he could do was swear under his breath while his shirt was getting soaked. Maybe he liked standing under the bridge than on the wet pavement as he walked along the hedge toward another pathway. Each direction was drenched in darkness, while it smelled thick of leaves and dirt. 

He couldn’t climb up since the thorns were too large, and smaller ones clung to the branches. 

“Synchronization…” Brian whispered, trying to understand what it meant. He came to a stop, realizing sinking in as he glanced behind him then in front of him. “Are you telling…this is some type of level?" He waved his hand around like he had done before in the GTA5 immersion game they were stuck in before. 

To his surprise and elation, a screen appeared before him, revealing his stats, objectives, and a map. One part of it was clear while the others were dark, even the names were obscured. There was one thing he did notice. The icons. Four others were trapped in this game as well. He pressed several buttons, and a text appeared over the Hedge Maze. 

**SECTION THREE: HEDGE MAZE.**

**OCCUPIED BY COMPANION TWO: THE TERRORISER.**

**A gigantic maze in section three of Entropy. Protected by the Spotlight Guardian, and the protector, The Terroriser.**

Brian dropped the screen and glanced around. “Protector? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

To answer his questions, there was a strong heat singeing the air, and a light growing closer to him.

Brian walked to the end of the path and glanced down another to his left. A light came around the corner, and he glanced up, except he didn’t see anything that was creating the light. 

He was getting a bad feeling, and stepped back as the light drew closer until it turned quick around the corner, and Brian pressed himself against hedge, and winced when his arm was caught in the light for only a second, and he fell hard to his knees on the cobblestone ground. 

“Fuck, fuck,” Brian breathed, finger squeezing the skin beside the wound as blood leaked and mixed with the rain water. He let out a trembled breath as he looked down at his wound. A blotchy burn on his forearm. He glanced up and noticed the light had gone still, and his health bar had gone down to 90%

“It was just a burn,” he was saying, unsure why because it hurt badly and it was still bleeding, and now the light was coming back towards him. “I thought I was the protector of this fucking place!” Brian got up and sprinted away from the light as it followed him around the paths, and when he almost skidded, he cursed under his breath and pushed himself until he was out of breath, and he wasn’t sure where to hide.

A light post was up ahead, and there was something against it. The hedge had been cut the a perfect circle, and he wedged himself against it, trying to ignore the thorns while he watched the light move away from him.

“Holy fuck...holy shit.” He tried to breathe, to calm down his racing heart when a text appeared in front of him. 

**PROTECTOR OF THE HEDGE MAZE: THE TERRORISER**

**WARNING: COMPANION ONE HAS ENTERED THE HEDGE MAZE.**

“Companion One?” Brian asked, pulling up the map and almost letting out a relieved laugh. Another red icon was on the map, and he knew where they were. He just had to make sure the spotlight didn’t catch them.

Brian took an evened breath before sprinting out of the safe spot and down the pathway, until he glanced down another path that he ran by, and the spotlight had stayed still, then it began to follow him. 

“Oh shit, oh fuck! No! Fuck you, get away from me!” The light was so close it could burn the back of his ankle. 

He didn’t want to get burned again. 

Brian skidded around a corner and spotted someone standing in the middle of the pathway, and realized right away who it was. So this is happening again? He’s not having some fucking weird nightmare.

“Run, you asshole,” Brian screamed, “don’t stare at me!” He grabbed Evan by the arm and started to run, asking why he was limping, before shoving him into another safe spot away from the spotlight that was close to burning them.

They were panting, Evan muttering something, while Brian was more focused on the text in front of his eyes. 

_Objective: Protect Companion One: Vanoss, with your life._


End file.
